2 Fundamental Shifts for the Retail Experience

Online shopping exceeded $130,000,000,000 USD worldwide in 2017. That is a 20% increase from 2016. In the United States of America alone, Thanksgiving weekend online sales exceeded $20,000,000,000. What’s really different in 2017 as compared to all previous years is the number of transactions that are completed using a smartphone.

For the first time ever, more transactions will be completed using a thumb on a smartphone versus a mouse scroll on a browser.

The vast majority of these thumb-scrolling and big-blue-button-pushing smartphone shoppers will participate in shopping experiences staged in real brick and mortar retail spaces. That sentence was very carefully worded. Read it again!!

Staging shopping experiences in 2017 require imagination and authenticity. Unfortunately the term “staged” has a stigma of “fake”. A music store that does a Facebook Live performance of a local band with the owner/manager in the store has far better chances of increasing profitable sales and sustainable relationships in 2018 than a music store that syndicates a 40% discounted blue light special with an email spam campaign using stock footage. You already know this is a true statement. The only thing that prevents you from adopting the smartphone behavioral standards is your rigid business practices. Your business flows need to flow like water not ice.

The vast majority of humans will participate in shopping experiences that are staged in brick and mortar retail spaces.